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As part of FishWise’s ongoing efforts to track news related to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, we are closely monitoring updates to the European Commission’s IUU watch list.

The European Commission (EC) issues yellow cards and red cards to nations that have not taken sufficient action to control IUU activity in their waters or by their flagged vessels. Yellow cards serve as a formal warning to countries that the Commission wants to see time-bound improvement in their anti-IUU governance, while a red card can include economic sanctions and trade measures. Countries that have been yellow carded have six months to show improved structural and legal reforms to their fisheries management, monitoring, and enforcement systems. If the EC decides a country has made insufficient progress after six months, the country will be given a red card and potentially banned from importing fishery products into the European Union.

Nations with red cards:

Cambodia

Comoros

Saint Vincent & Grenadines

Nations with yellow cards:

Kiribati

Liberia

Saint Kitts & Nevis

Sierra Leone

Taiwan

Thailand

Trinidad and Tobego

Tuvalu

The following nations were previously carded but have made credible progress in improving their fisheries governance and combatting IUU, and have subsequently been removed from the EC’s IUU watch list:

Belize

Fiji

Ghana

Guinea

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Philippines

South Korea

Sri Lanka

Togo

Vanuatu

Curacao

Solomon Islands

For further details about the European Commission’s anti-IUU fishing program, please see the Commission’s news page.